A wise teacher once told the story of a man who was on a journey, who was mugged and beaten up, robbed of all his possessions and left on the side of the street to die. Continue reading
Category: things to wrestle with
There have been a lot of words written this last week with regards to #FeesMustFall and it can be quite overwhelming to try and wade through them all.
Sometimes pictures can speak louder than words, so here is a post with some of the better pictures i have found that help to put this past week and some of the related issues into some kind of perspective.
Firstly the Ant vs Cricket scenario we witnessed so effectively in ‘A Bug’s Life’ – how less than 25% of this country managed to keep 75% or so of it in bondage for so long was always going to be a just-a-matter-of-time scenario.
This cartoon i feel sums up much of the white population in South Africa. i don’t know many people who drive past the township on the way to the airport and don’t think it would be great if all those people had better living conditions and a more comfortable way of life. But the moment it looks like i might have to give up some of my comfort or ease-of-life or money, resources or time, it can quickly become a whole different story…
This piece by Iain Thomas was shared across Facebook and i think puts into good words a lot of the sadness that many of us carry with some of the actions and responses [or lack of action and response] we have seen from various people and organisations this last week while #FeesMustFall was happening…
The punchline of this is ‘Most Importantly Africa needs leadership’ which sums up so much of our present condition and obstacles i feel. As does the one statement i heard this past week which went: South Africa doesn’t have a money problem – South Africa has a money management problem’ – i cannot get my head around the numbers i saw posted about Zuma’s cabinet and some of the stats of what they earn and the houses and cars they have that tbV shared with me last night and how that has been allowed so easily to be a thing. Right there there are millions of rands that could be doing good.
But the other statements on this poster help give an eyesight into more of the White Privilege we have been talking about:
This is a repost of one of the more powerful posters i saw which we saw play out in reality this past week which was incredible:
And finally this cartoon which i just realised i only posted the first four blocks of in one of my previous posts as i assumed the whole thing came together, which must have confused a whole lot of people, but having the whole cartoon will help give a comparative insight into how privilege can play out in two different life trajectories…
Above all else, and thanks to Wayne Eaves for this one, take time to LISTEN, to do some RESEARCH, to really try and UNDERSTAND and if you do there will be so many people more than happy to engage with you and hep you to ‘get’ this thing. But above all else, try and not be one of these:
With thanks to Nick Frost aka @Nick_Frost for this pic
Dear Church in South Africa,
i am not known for my brevity, but let me give this a try.
Firstly, i hope you know just how much i love you. Continue reading
Picture made by Nick Frost and used without all of his permission, yet.
i only have a few minutes to write this before i have to go out to do a talk [which has been much affected by this week’s events] so this will not be as meaty as it could be, but i wanted to get something out.
The last few days have been kindova blur – i have written and shared and experienced much and only been able to post a fraction of it – if you’re on the Facebook then a lot of extra articles and shares got posted on my blog page over here.
On this blog i managed to get four posts out, which are still worth a read if you missed any of them: Continue reading
They often say that during a crisis, to know who your true friends are, just look left and right. Actually i don’t know if they do say that, i just came up with it but i’m pretty sure if i try and claim it some dead guy is going to come forward and say, “Um actually Brett Fish, that one is mine.” Like that whole “I have a dream” debacle. Okay not quite, but still.
To Know Who Your True Friends Are, Just Look Left and Right
i did my best to compile some helpful resources linked to the #FeesMustFall movement in this post i did ‘From a Number of Different Eyes and Mouths’ and this second post which shared more thoughts as well as first-hand experiences of others. But i knew that to really get a feel for what was happening and to be a more active part of it, we needed to get on the ground and so we did that today for 5 and a half hours.
My Facebook status after i got home read like this: Continue reading
Continuing from yesterday’s post highlighting some very helpful thinking when it comes to this #FeesMustFall movement, i just wanted to share some other helpful [and harrowing] posts from yesterday to help people find a bunch of useful stuff in one space. If you find this helpful at all then please share it and tag the people you think need to read this.
The biggest problem i have witnessed in so many white people is the rush to defend and explain and justify and the refusal to simply listen first and hear the issues and the stories and see the people involved as people – If you’re not prepared to listen then this post is going to be meaningless, but if you at least are curious as to why what is happening is going on then start by simply LISTENING and engaging before you prepare a response or a rebuttal or a statistic sheet. Just really try and honestly hear what is being shared through stories and actions here: Continue reading
Irresistibly Fish 